Norway Akershus - Last Lunch Seating - Characters?

[Delta Hog]

I read in one of the WDW guidebooks to "make sure you reserve your meal at Akershus for when the characters are going to be there -- they are only there for about an hour."

The only reservation I could get for our peak-season March visit is the last lunch seating, 2:50 p.m. WILL THERE BE CHARACTERS THERE DURING THIS TIME? If not, I'm not sure it is worth it....thanks for any advice.

(I searched but did not find anything on this specific question).

 

[Aimeedyan]

I can't imagine why the book would say that because the characters are there the entire time during a character meal. We book the last seating everytime we do a character meal and the characters make sure and stop by each and every table.

 

[Delta Hog]

Whew. Thank you for the assurance.

To be specific, Walt Disney World With Kids 2007, by Wiley, p. 195, "Insider's Secret":

"The princess character meals at Epcot are nearly as popular as those in the Magic Kingdom. Restaurant Akershus in Norway is the host, and the princesses show up at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They only stay for about an hour though, so be sure to book your meal at the time they're slated to appear."

 

[Delta Hog]

Thanks again to Aimeedyan, and I am bumping this in case anyone else has any recent experiences (assurances!) to relate.

 

[dvcdisney]

I don't know if they have characters at lunch, but when we were there for dinner, the characters were there the whole time. They appeared to have a scheduled appearance on each table. They go in order, but they only visit your table once. They spent quite a while with my daughter and son. We were satisfied with the character interaction. There is even a CM that stands there and watches to make sure each character go to each table. They came to our table and asked us if all the princesses had visited our table and if we were satisfied with their interaction.

I too don't understand why someone would say that they only stay for an hour. They may change each hour (not sure if this is what they mean) but there's always new ones that come out.

 

[PrincessAurora]

I always book the first ressie for lunch. The characters come out about an 45 minutes - 1 hour into our meal (we are finishing mains/starting dessert). We usually see most of the characters but missed a few because, to be honest, we were there for the food and not for the Princess and wanted to get back to drinking. Thus if we left around 1:00 and the characters were only half way done, I wouldn't worry.

I also had friends eat around 1:30 and mentioned characters. I am sure that they make 1 sweep, then go off stage to return and make another full sweep for the later half of diners. They don't expect the first seaters to stay until 2:30. I would not worry about it. This person didn't know what they were talking about.